Cannes: Directors’ Fortnight Lines Up Vet Auteurs and American Indies

Cannes: Directors' Fortnight Lines Up Vet Auteurs and American Indies

While some may have expected Cannes faves Jaco Van Dormael and Takashi Miike to wind up in the Official Selection, those auteurs instead lead the 47th Directors’ Fortnight lineup, along with American indies “Green Room,” starring Imogen Poots, Anton Yelchin and Patrick Stewart, the world premiere of Jeremy Saulnier’s punk rock follow-up to Fortnight entry “Blue Ruin,’ and two Sundance titles, Chloe Zhao’s Native American drama “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” and the May 24 Fortnight closer, Rick Famuyiwa’s L.A. comedy “Dope.”

After leaking that Competition two also-rans would play in the Quinzaine rather than accept slots in Un Certain Regard–Miguel Gomes’s three part, six-hour portrait of contemporary Portugal, “Arabian Nights” (The Match Factory) and French Arnaud Desplechin’s “My Golden Years” starring Mathieu Amalric– on Tuesday artistic director Edouard Waintrop laid out the full lineup of 19 films (out of a record 1,623 submissions).

The program includes three women filmmakers this year: Zhao, Turkish rookie Deniz Gamze Erguven’s village drama “Mustang,” and Chilean Marcia Tambutti’s “Allende, mi abuelo Allende.” a documentary about her grandfather Salvador Allende.

The Fortnight makes up for a lack of Latin American titles in the festival with Amazon adventure “Embrace of the Serpent,” Colombian rising auteur Ciro Guerra’s return to Cannes after 2009’s “The Wind Journeys” played Un Certain Regard. Comedies in the lineup include Belgian Van Dormael’s religious satire “The Brand New Testament” (La Pacte) his follow-up to “Mr. Nobody,” starring Benoit Poelvoorde as God, Yolande Moreau and Catherine Deneuve, and Japanese Takashi Miike’s Special Screenng “Yakuza Apocalypse: The Great War of the Underworld.”

Marking another filmmaker working in English is Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s “A Perfect Day” stars Benicio Del Toro, Tim Robbins and Olga Kurylenko. French screenwriter-turned-director Thomas Bidegain’s “The Cowboys” (Pathe) stars Francois Damiens and Finnegan Oldfield as a father who hires a headhunter (John C. Reilly) to find his missing daughter. Bidegain won the Cesar for Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” and also wrote “Rust and Bone.”

The French Directors Association will present its Carrosse d’Or to China’s Jia Zhangke, whose “Mountains May Depart” is in the Main Competition. Other awards include the first-time filmmakers’ Camera d’Or as well as the FIPRESCI given by international critics, the Art Cinema Award, SACD Prize and Europa Cinemas Label and the illy Prize. (Hat Tip: Variety.)

FEATURES

A Perfect Day by Fernando León de Aranoa 1h46

Worldwide Premiere

Beyond My Grandfather Allende by Marcia Tambutti 1h37

Worldwide Premiere – First film

Arabian Nights by Miguel Gomes

Worldwide Premiere

Volume 1, The Restless One – 2h05

Volume 2, The Desolate One – 2h11

Volume 3, The Enchanted One – 2h05

Les Cowboys by Thomas Bidegain 1h54

Worldwide Premiere – First film

Dope by Rick Famuyiwa 1h45

International Première – Closing Film

Embrace of the Serpent by Ciro Guerra 2h05

Worldwide Premiere

Fatima by Philippe Faucon 1h18

Worldwide Premiere

Yakuza Apocalypse : The Great War of the Underworld by Takashi Miike 1h55

Worldwide Premiere – Special Screening

Green Room by Jeremy Saulnier 1h34

Worldwide Premiere

Much Loved by Nabil Ayouch 1h45

Worldwide Premiere

Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven 1h40

Worldwide Premiere – First film

In the Shadow of Women by Philippe Garrel 1h10

Worldwide Premiere – Opening film

Preceded by an unseen short film by Philippe Garrel made in 1968, Actua 1